The paperman staggered to its feet from the ground. Though it was made of paper, its expression was no different from that of a living person.
An evil presence appeared in the room, and with each step it took, the paperman turned to look back at Han Fei.
Deep longing and thick intent to kill filled its eyes.
Ever since the Blood-colored Paperman had appeared, the girls in dormitory 304 began to focus their attention on the paperman.
Perhaps because she had encountered numerous curses and profanities in her life, she particularly loathed all kinds of curses after her death.
Incredible grudge energy mixed with water stains filled the room with screams and cries, followed by humanoid water stains being pulled out of the walls by the girls, converging into a black river.
This river water was ice-cold and bone-chilling, devoid of any light, bringing with it suffocating despair!
It was filled with insults, slander, and quarrels—all the misfortunes the girl had encountered in life formed the river that drowned her.
The girl slowly sank into the black river, her shrill screams and despair engulfed by the water, then the river furiously cleansed all the filth of the world.
The Blood-colored Paperman was a Grade F Curse Item, capable of resisting the negative emotions in the black river water, but as the river continued to surge, the layer of blood on it began to fade.
The malice in the paperman’s eyes began to return as the face that looked exactly like Xu Qin’s slowly peeled off, gradually becoming blurred.
As the paperman and the girl continued to fight, Han Fei’s memories began to blend with those of the paperman. Scenes of cruelty, strangeness, enough to drive a living person mad, repeatedly surfaced in Han Fei’s brain.
A sensation of coolness passed through the corners of his eyes, and the world in Han Fei’s eyes was slowly turning blood red.
"Teacher! Your eyes are bleeding!"
Zhang Guanxing was screaming beside him, but Han Fei dared not be distracted. Controlling a Grade F Curse Item was still too difficult for him.
By level classification, Grade F corresponded to levels 10 to 20, and the Blood-colored Paperman was a particularly rare special type of Curse Item within Grade F.
"I must hold on!" Clenching his teeth, Han Fei experienced the pain and despair the Curse Item had once suffered—this was a battle of wills.
The black river crashed wildly, but the tiny Blood-colored Paperman seemed like a rock by the seaside, standing at the front. Aside from the fading blood color on it, it did not show much damage.
In dormitory 304, it seemed like the girl and the Blood-colored Paperman were fighting desperately for their lives, but in reality, it was Han Fei fighting against the memories of the Blood-colored Paperman.
The memories of a Curse Item were like poisoned knives to a living person—one moment of carelessness could lead to being influenced, even twisting one’s memory and personality.
With blood flowing from his eyes and the cries of ghosts echoing in his brain, as Han Fei neared his limit, the notification sound of task completion finally rang out.
"Player number 0000, please take note! You have successfully completed the Grade G hidden task—Midnight Knocking. Basic reward received: one Free Skill Point. Hidden task additional reward received: Shu Mengting’s Diary."
"Shu Mengting’s Diary: Records Shu Mengting’s secrets, if used wisely, it can greatly improve her friendliness."
"You have successfully challenged two Kaidan of the Academy, your completion of the Grade F hidden task ’Jin Sheng’s Academy Kaidan’ has reached two-sevenths."
Hearing the voice in his brain, Han Fei immediately turned his head, "Guanxing! Open the door and get ready to run! I can’t hold on any longer!"
Zhang Guanxing opened the dormitory door, but to his surprise, there was a Ghost Face outside the room.
That was another girl who lived in this dorm, twisted together in a very terrifying way.
"You run first!" Han Fei shouted, letting the black shadow around his arm block the Ghost Face.
"Let’s leave together!" Zhang Guanxing, clutching the black jar, was so anxious he was nearly crying.
"You go back to your own dorm and wait for me, don’t run around!" Han Fei also stepped out of the dormitory, starting to use himself as bait to attract Shu Mengting and the female ghost outside the door.
Zhang Guanxing saw what Han Fei intended to do and without any hesitation immediately said, "Teacher! I’ll join you! I can help you!"
In this life-and-death crisis, the young ruffian chose to stand by his loyalty. His eyes reddened, wanting to help Han Fei guard his back.
"Run!" Han Fei never thought that a scene so often seen in movies would actually happen to him, he was truly on the verge of being unable to hold on anymore, "Hurry up and run!"
Fury consuming his heart, Han Fei kicked Zhang Guanxing across to the relatively safe side of the corridor.
As his body was kicked away, Zhang Guanxing, watching Han Fei alone attracting the attention of two fierce ghosts, saw the blood and tears on Han Fei’s face and the pain-twisted cheeks, and his heart felt as though it was being fiercely grasped.
Even his father, who knew only to drink, had never protected him !
The tattooed character for ’hate’ on his arm had faded a lot. Zhang Guanxing bit down hard on his teeth and then, clutching the black can, ran downstairs.
At the same time, Han Fei’s mind heard the system’s voice again.
"Player 0000 please note! Zhang Guanxing (Wild Dog)’s friendliness has increased by forty! You have earned Zhang Guanxing’s trust!"
Seeing Zhang Guanxing run far away, Han Fei controlled the Paperman to slowly approach him, retreating while fighting.
When the Paperman wasn’t far from him, he grabbed the Blood-colored Paperman and stored it in the Item Bar, then summoned the black shadow and started running toward the third-floor bathroom.
In a desperate sprint, Han Fei hadn’t even managed to run into the bathroom when he was caught up to by Shu Mengting.
Having no choice, he let Xu Qin’s raised black shadow hide in the bathroom while he exited the game in the third-floor corridor.
The blood-red world slowly solidified, and Han Fei’s consciousness instantly detached.
Removing the heavy gaming helmet, Han Fei’s heart was still pounding violently. He collapsed onto the bed and greedily breathed in the fresh air.
"It feels so good to be alive."
Han Fei had never craved survival so much. He had a reason he must see tomorrow’s sun rise—because his first starring move would premiere tomorrow.
"Someone like me, actually looking forward to a new day."
Setting an alarm, Han Fei tossed and turned for a long while before falling asleep.
Around twelve noon, Director Jiang made a phone call, worried that Han Fei would forget to attend the gathering and specifically admonished him a few times.
To be reminded repeatedly by the director to attend the dinner was a first for Han Fei.
After a simple wash up, Han Fei ordered takeout and then turned on his computer to start searching for information related to Yimin Private Academy.
The more he learned about the school, the more curious his heart became. He was eager to predict the kind of Kaidan he would encounter next, for some mental preparation.
"The information online is too scarce, but this school definitely has depths worth digging into. I feel that it has a lot to do with Butterfly."
Most of Butterfly’s targets were children, from Little Eight to Jin Sheng. Han Fei believed that Butterfly was spreading malice everywhere in order to create a child that it was satisfied with.
Han Fei was not clear yet on what this satisfactory standard was, but he felt he was very close to the truth.
Having information about the cases posted on the wall and the various materials related to the Human-body Puzzle case, Han Fei didn’t throw them away; instead, he organized those materials and put them into a cardboard box.
"Why does it feel like a police archive room?"
Shaking his head, after dealing with these things, Han Fei then began to study various subjects.
Criminal psychology, education, talent management, urban construction, and so on, just by looking at the books he was reading, he didn’t at all seem like an actor.
At six in the evening, when Director Jiang called for the third time to hurry him along, Han Fei put on a new set of clothes and then left the room.